


Closing The Distance

by bipedalpanda (jbird181), jbird181



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Awkwardness, Fluff, Inspired by Music, Like Intense Awkwardness, M/M, Valentine's Day, mutual crushing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-10 00:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7823728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jbird181/pseuds/bipedalpanda, https://archiveofourown.org/users/jbird181/pseuds/jbird181
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stone doesn't have any grand plans for Valentine's Day, but apparently Ezekiel does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Closing The Distance

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't part of A Series of Coincidences, we just like to write about the holidays. 
> 
> Inspired by the Christina's Perri's "Distance" and the amazing [fanvideo by Alex Smith](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscu6jm4FSg) on YouTube. Let’s take a moment to thank spellcheck, without which you would be reading about haerts and bttles.

            It was Valentine’s Day when it happened. As usual, Cassandra had gone all-out in decorating, and hearts, pink streamers, and Cupids filled all available space. How she managed to get so excited for _every single holiday_ was beyond Stone’s comprehension, but he thought it was cute nevertheless. Speaking of Cassandra, where was everybody? _Right, Valentine’s Day._ Flynn and Eve were long gone, Jenkins had left earlier for who knows where, and Cassandra was honestly probably at the nearby grocery store, picking up yet _another_ bottle of red food dye. He was a little worried that his skin would take on a red tinge from all of the pink and red baked goods he had consumed so far this week.

            Presumably that left Jones home with him in the Annex, but he hadn’t seen Ezekiel since early this morning. On second thought, that was odd considering how much the kid loved his “beauty sleep”. Maybe he had a date. Stone chuckled quietly to himself. _Yeah, right._ It’s not like Ezekiel couldn’t get a date if he wanted one, but either he wasn’t interested, or he was blind to anyone flirting with him. Stone for one had no special Valentine’s Day plans except kicking back on the couch with a few of Cassandra’s offensively pink cookies, a glass of milk, and a good book. Right now, he was on his way back to his “office” to grab his copy of _The Fault in Our Stars_ : not something he would typically read, but a small tribute to the ambiance of the holiday.

            As he entered his office, Stone noticed something out of place. _Strange._ He didn’t remember leaving any DVD’s out. Usually his desk was only cluttered with the odd book or paper. As he got closer he could read the words hastily scrawled on its surface in familiar handwriting that he couldn’t quite place: Play Me. Intrigued, Stone carefully picked up the disk, booted up his laptop, and inserted the DVD. After a few seconds, a menacing disclaimer in creepy font popped up on the screen.

            **This is for one person only, and his name is Jacob Stone. If you are not the aforementioned Jacob Stone, please eject the disk immediately and return it to where you found it. If you refuse to comply, believe me, I _will_ find you. If you are Stone, sit back, relax, and proceed. **

       Stone now had a pretty good idea of who had planted the disk. A nervous-looking Ezekiel filled the screen in front of a generic gray wall that he was pretty sure he had seen before in the Annex. Wait a second, was that a piano Ezekiel was balancing the camera on?

            _Yes, yes it was_ he realized as he recognized the opening notes of Christina Perri’s “Distance”. (Don’t ask how he knows that song.)

            And then Ezekiel began _singing_ , and Stone had to pinch himself to make sure this wasn’t another hormone-driven fantasy of his.

            His voice was lower than he had imagined, not that he had imagined Jones’ voice before, shut up. _“Do you feel the way I do, right now?”_ Stone refused to think about the possible meaning behind the lyrics. Hey, maybe Ezekiel knew another Jacob Stone and was currently plotting this Stone’s slow and painful death for not ejecting the disk. Maybe, maybe…

            _“Say, ‘I love you,’ when you’re not listening.”_

            A tiny corner of Stone’s brain was screaming at him to eject the disk, shut the laptop, pretend this never happened, but the rest of him… he wanted to see how it played out. _Damnit._ So, he sat down in his office chair and tried to enjoy the moment, transfixed by Ezekiel’s voice—who knew he could hit those notes?! All too soon, the song was over.

_“How long ‘til we call this love, love, love?”_

Stone thought that the video would end with the last lyrics, but it didn’t.

            “Hey, mate, in the event that you aren’t totally weirded out by all… _this_.” Ezekiel gestured to the camera and piano. “Please meet me in the RC room. I left a map with directions out in the Great Room. So, um… yeah. Thanks for making it this far in the video.” With that, the screen turned black and the replay symbol popped up. _Maybe later._ Right now, he had a room to locate.

. . . . .

            Five minutes, two wrong turns, and a roundabout later, Stone is standing in the doorway of the room from the video, complete with a grand piano and Ezekiel lying on the floor with his eyes closed, clutching a bouquet of roses to his chest. He’s the spitting image of Sleeping Beauty. Stone takes a moment to savor it, and wishes he had brought a camera to capture the scene. With a deep breath to calm his nerves, he steps through the doorway, causing the floorboards to creak and Ezekiel to bolt up into a standing position, eyes wide as if he was a deer caught in headlights.

            The silence is insufferable, so Stone takes it upon himself to say something witty and charming, something that will ease the tension and normalize all of this… whatever is going on today. “Hey.” Okay, so not exactly what Stone was going for, but at least it shocks Ezekiel out of his stupor.

            “I guess you saw the video.”

            “Yeah.”

            “…Yeah.” It’s cute how flustered Ezekiel is, but Stone himself is too nervous to enjoy it.

            “Uh, well I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that you made that and called me here for, you know, a reason?”

            “Yeah.”

            “So… yeah.”

            “Uh… theseareforyou!” Ezekiel thrust the roses at Stone’s chest, and thank goodness for the plastic, because otherwise Stone’s afraid the flowers would’ve impaled him. He takes them gingerly.

            “Thanks,” he murmurs, slightly in shock. He hadn’t expected to ever get flowers from anyone, least of all Ezekiel Jones, and the suspense and awkwardness is too much. “What are you trying to do here?!”

            Ezekiel puffs his cheeks and blows out, refusing to meet Stone’s eyes. “I, I… _like_ you. Like, a lot.”

            Stone tries to think of something smart to say, something that confirms that he feels the same way, but all that comes out is, “Yeah?”

            “Yeah. And, um, I was wondering… well, if you feel the same, I’d really like it if you’d… bemyboyfriend?”

            It takes a second for Stone to process Ezekiel’s words, and another second to command his mouth to shut, then reopen, and then shut again because his vocal chords seem to have bailed on him.

            Ezekiel backtracks and sticks his hands up in front of his chest, palms out to create a barrier between them. “It’s okay if you don’t want to, I get it, seriously, sorry about this, it just felt right, you know, Valentine’s Day, Romantic Comedy Room, sorry—“

            “Yeah!” Stone blurted out. “I mean, no, no no I _do_ want to be your boyfriend, I’d love to!”

            Ezekiel froze. “Oh. Then… I do believe that this is the part of the movie when you kiss me.”

            “Yeah.” Stone managed to step forward toward Ezekiel—his boyfriend. Right, he’s going to have to get used to that.

            “Yeah," Ezekiel grins.

            And kissing him is just as wonderful as Stone imagined.

**Author's Note:**

> In the interest of reviving a dead meme, maybe "yeah" can be Ezekiel and Stone's always. :3


End file.
